Traverse
by Luckywild
Summary: The sequel to Guardian of Luck, the appearance of time-traveling future children, the return of Pitch and his new 'daughter', all sets in plans to answer the question - must fear truly be hidden away from the world? Or can it be accepted and controlled?
1. Chapter 1

Rise of the Guardians

Traverse

Chapter One: Setting Fear Free

The two of them were jumbled together as the feline hissed in rage. "You stupid moron! Get yourself in control!"

"Like you were doing so much better than me! Get your butt off of me!"

The girl spun onto her heels. "You.. You.. Unlucky rabbit!"

"Now that is below the tail, Aegis!"

"You started it, Trek!" That cat stamped her foot. "Now where are we?"

"We're.. uh… not where we're supposed to be.." Trek's ice blue eyes turned lighter as the two gazed around the darkness and flitting shadows. "I think we're in a lair that we're not supposed to be in.."

"Crap! Let's go, let's go!" Aegis pranced around, her ears back in terror. "Before anything else goes wrong!"

"Fine!"

They high-fived and disappeared from the lair of the Boogeyman as Pitch ebbed out of the shadows. The duo had left by a different route, living the one they used to enter wide open. His smile slowly spread across his face as his face crinkled and his eyes fell half-shut with delight.

While the two had difficulty trying to get where they were supposed to be, the mixed family of bunnies and kitties were rising up from their long sleep. Faustine started to clean Axel around the ears as Axel slowly awoke, leaning toward his mother with appreciation.

"I wanna bath!" Princessa begged. "I'm next!"

"A bunny should be next!" Thump protested.

"Let Dad clean you," Princessa told her sister matter-of-factly.

Bunny winced. "Let your mother do it. She's better at it."

"You're telling me, you bite," Axel muttered as his mother finished cleaning him.

"You're all getting old enough to groom yourselves," Faustine told her children. "This is just bonding."

"Plus it keeps you quiet for a little more time."

Faustine glared from the side at Bunny who grinned at her.

"Funny, smart guy." She huffed as Hop was rubbing anxiously against her. "All right, all right, you're next!"

"Yea!" Hop settled quickly. "I wish I could purr!"

"Let me do it for you," Hitch offered as he leaned against Hop and started his motor going. Hop giggled at the comical look on her brother's face as Axel rolled his eyes and jumped off the bed.

And found himself slipping around paint. "Hey! Who made this mess!?"

"Who's been in my paints?" Bunny demanded but his children nor Faustine had any paint residue on them. He was also pretty certain that they all had slept hard.

"Oh, my God, Trek, you look soooo ridiculous!"

"I look.. Hey, how about looking in a mirror, you stupid dog!"

"Cat! CAT! I AM A CAT!"

The two of them found themselves scruffed hard in Bunny's hands.

"She started it, I swear she did!"

"I did not, you start everything!"

"I'm not the one bitching!"

"AUGH!" Aegis waved her arms toward her brother angrily. "Let me at him! Let me at him! You unlucky bunny! If you hadn't messed with the coin, we wouldn't be in this mess!"

"You joined me!"

"I had no choice, you forced me!"

"YOU CAN'T FORCE A CAT!"

Bunny had enough and threw them in opposite directions. "My head hurts."

Hitch was wiggling away from his mother, who was trying to finish cleaning him. He clawed desperately at the bedding.

"Thump, a little help!" Hitch squeaked as his mother bit into his scruff.

"My turn, Mama!" Thump shoved herself between the two as Hitch dove off the bed and ended on a roll next to his father. His head spun as he saw several strands of silver thread.

"There's a lot of thread, Dad," He tugged on Bunny's arm.

"Yea, I thought there would be." Bunny swiveled his head back and forth.

"What's it mean?"

"It means that these two aren't doing a very good job in controlling… GET OUT OF MY CARROT PATCH!"

Trek tore out of it, his cheeks full of carrots. "Um sawwy!" He climbed up a tree with the grace of a cat and took a hard gulp. "I'm so hungry!" He wailed.

"You're hungry? You're hungry?!"

Bunny held his head tightly.

Aegis sneered up at the tree. "I'm starving! And there's no mice here!"

"You're not looking hard enough," Trek muttered.

Aegis completely collapsed in exhaustion and all the dramatic prose she could muster with the exhaustion.

"All right, now that you're worn down, how did you get into my Warren? Where are you from? Who are you? And how do you know how to do time travel?!"

"We don't. If we did, we couldn't be in this mess," Aegis continued to glare up at Trek.

"You agreed to come!"

"It doesn't work with just one!"

"ENOUGH!"

Bunny glared out darkly, feeling very drawn out. "I want answers NOW."

Aegis turned to look up and spoke sharply in a strange language.

"Oh, crap…" Bunny muttered softly.

"Daddy, what are they saying?"

"They're too soft for me to understand but I know that language. It's mine."

"Yours?"

"Yes, Rabbit-speak. We used it as a way to communicate without giving away where or who we were."

"So how do these two know it?" Faustine whispered loudly, having snuck up behind her mate and son.

"Because they're ours."

"Ours?" Faustine was skeptical.

"Yes, our children. From the future."

"Hey!" Trek became indignant. "You can't say that!"

"Why not?" Aegis asked him coldly.

"Uh… we were not going to ever reveal it… right?"

"Oh, yea, they can't tell… well, he can, she… maybe not."

Faustine was the next to become indignant. "Hey! Don't insult your future mother!"

"Future?" The five all piled forward, eyes bright and expressive. "Little brother and sister? Just.. The two of you?" Axel was disappointed.

"We, sir, are special," Aegis puffed out her fluffy chest. "We can manipulate time and space. That is, if someone KNEW HOW TO DO IT!"

"It's not me, it's you!"

"Dad, they're loud!" Axel tugged on an long arm.

"And they complain a lot," Princessa scoffed. "Even more than me!"

"They're just having a spat," Faustine said soothingly.

That spat turned out into a battle as the two began to violently wrestle. The more they fought, the more obscure and twisted the area around them became.

"What's going on?" Thump hid behind her mother, Hop doing the same.

"It's.. like looking into a kaleidoscope," Hitch breathed. "It's so pretty…"

"No, it's not pretty, it's extremely dangerous!" Bunny huffed and swung his arms apart. He literally tore the space between the two, halting the partially drawn portal and made it diminish into nothing. "This is why you're stuck here! You two cannot get along and until you do, you are trapped here!"

Bunny paused heavily. "Though, it shouldn't have to take both of you."

"Yes, it does," Aegis dug out her coin from her collar. Or that is, a half of a coin. "We were born with one half a coin."

"WOW." Faustine's eyes took up her entire face. "That's so cool!"

"Let's get some things straightened out before we start having a complicated conversation." Bunny pointed to Faustine. "And it's not 'cool'!"

"Well, obviously you don't know what it means." Faustine muttered, crossing her arms and pointed her nose away.

"I think introductions are in order," Bunny said pointedly.

"Oh, oh! My name is Axel! This is Hop, Thump.." Axel winced as Hitch slapped the back of his head. "What was that for?!"

"They already know us!" Hitch pinched Axel. "They're our SIBLINGS, remember?"

"He has a point. You always were a little clueless." Trek smirked at Axel.

Axel's eyes narrowed as he hissed at him.

"NAMES!"

"God, yes, fine," Trek snapped, fluttering around in distress. "It's nice to know that you still sound the same in our time with all of your shouting."

"Will you shut up?" Aegis shoved her brother away. "I'm Aegis. Genius here is Trek."

"That's a pretty name," Faustine clasped her hands with delight.

"Thank you." Both of them said at once.

Faustine continued to beam while the two looked at each other darkly.

"Why are you here?" Bunny asked, holding his head as the start a headache began at the back of his head.

"Umm… Well, I'm certainly not at fault," Aegis began.

"Twitch."

"Unlucky."

"WHY ARE YOU HERE!?"

The two backed away from the enraged bunny. "We.. Sort of made a mistake. We kind of don't have much control." Trek tried to smile as charming as possible.

"I wasn't going to do anything but he begged and begged and I couldn't get him to shut up so I agreed that we could try a trial run… without, uh… Dad's help." Aegis, too, tried to smile as charming as possible. "It was supposed to be a teeny, little travel and we kind of jumped.. All over. I mean, all over.." She dragged out the last two words.

"Like where?" Axel asked suspiciously.

"Let's see, I think we ended up in the 1600s, um, somewhere in San Francisco after a really bad earthquake, then here, then somewhere dark and creepy like the Boogeyman lived there, annnnnndd back here again." Trek counted off his fingers.

"Did you say 'Boogeyman'?" Bunny was very still, his voice low.

"Yea, it was cold and damp and dark and it reeked of fear and I thought I could see dancing horse shadows on the walls." Trek added.

Aegis was ebbing away from Bunny, his eyes wide and expressionless. Trek seemed a little clueless but the next question set him right.

"Did you close your portal?" Bunny asked it in a near-whisper.

"Did we close our…uh…sure, I'm sure.. We did.." Trek turned to have Aegis back him up as she looked away, rubbing her head. "Oh, crap."

"Ah, shit."

"BUNNY!"

"No, no, no, no, no! Damnit all to Hell!"

"Ohhh, Daddy's saying bad words!" Princessa shouted.

"I'll get the soap," Axel said gleefully, tearing away from the group.

"Do you know what you've done?" Bunny shouted, shaking his paws at the two. "You've left him with an escape? The children are going to be in danger!"

"Or you."

Bunny swiveled an long ear to Hitch. "Excuse me?"

"Umm…I have a gut feeling that it's not going to the children. I mean, you and the Guardians kind of.. Screwed him over, right?"

"One, don't talk like that. Two, no, we didn't."

Bunny caught the stare from Aegis and Trek. "What?!"

"Yea, I agree with Hitch. He's pretty much always right." Trek said finally.

"And Axel's always wrong," Aegis smirked.

Faustine was frowning. "Wait! There's an actual Boogeyman? Does he look like Death?"

"No, Death is someone else." Bunny muttered. "I need to go talk with North.. But first…"

His hands fell on top of the two as they shimmered in silver which transferred to the two. "Until you two learn how to control the space-time continuum, you are bound to this time, this place, and to the family."

"But.. I want to go home!" Aegis cried.

"I had a really pretty date planned!" Trek fell on his knees, begging his father. "She's such a little thing! I was sure to get lucky!"

"You unlucky bunny!"

"You twitch!"

"Oh, my god, Faustine, watch them please and try not to.. I don't know, entice them more?"

"Why would I? It's too early for this type of fighting. Plus, I need to eat."

"FOOD!" Faustine was overcome in the two's arms as Bunny rolled his eyes and left with a snort.


	2. Chapter 2

Rise of the Guardians

Traverse

Chapter Two: Unafraid of the Nightmares

Pitch slunk around, snickering to himself. He was out in the dark night, the moon pale and weak as he shuffled out of the forest and toward the blistering lights of the city, sparkling like lowly hung stars, fluttering just above the grounds.

He was drawn to the darker lit part of the city; debris, broken vehicles and furniture littered everywhere. He looked around, hearing the dull sounds of gunshots and the even duller sound of the police sirens.

He disappeared into a low shadow of a tree, slinking out of a shadow in a very cold and sparse room. He looked to the mattress on the ground, where a girl was laying, looking up blankly to the ceiling, expressionless, emotionless.

His hand moved with the flow of his body's motion, dark sand falling freely as he stilled when her gaze met his.

Eyes nearly black, stark change versus his golden eyes, they held nothing, no tell of feeling, no tell of personality. Her eyes were heavy-hooded, dark around the eyes from the severe lack of sleep, and the deep rooted well of instilled terror and torment.

"You've come to kill me."

His head tilted to the side.

"I knew you'd come. It was going to happen. No matter what." Her eyes very slowly blinked as she turned away. "Go ahead. I'm already dead."

She lay on the worn-out mattress, its' insides ripped from knife stabs, the fabric soaked in blood, urine, and tears. Dressed in a very worn out men's shirt, tied around her waist with a old belt, she lay like a rag doll.

His hand moved slowly, fingers becoming claws as shadows spread across the room, cutting off the thin light from under the door to the outside.

The man turned suddenly from his armchair, finishing off his beer as he frowned suddenly. "Hey! Hey! Get the hell out of there and in here, you stupid bitch!"

He surged to his feet. "Come on, be a good girl or else I'll have to punish you."

He slammed the door open, the window pulled open, the cold wind fluttering around as the mattress was barren. "You're got to be fucking kidding me! It's the fifth floor!"

He lunged over the open window, nothing there to have made the girl able to survive a fall this high. No trees, no bedding, no ladders. "How did she get out?"

Pitch was surrounded by his horses, having made some sort of peace with them. Having been trapped with just them, it was either give into fear or learn to adapt. Being trapped made him forced to accept his own fears and with it, the new birth of rage and the need for revenge.

His fingers steepled together, as his eyes half-closed with delight. He'd had a long time to plan for his revenge and he was going to take them all out. If he couldn't be believed in, no one will be. His targets was the Guardians themselves, no longer the children. If he destroyed their centers, that of which made them who they were, then their links to the world, to the children, would be shattered beyond repair.

"Papa."

The girl looked to him with a frown. She was dressed in a black dress, thin and light, worn loosely and partially hidden by a heavier, black cloak. Her mind wasn't all there, having been broken already by those who she should've been able to trust, so to her, the man of nightmares was her savior and therefore the only one who cared for her.

And in his way, he did. He'd once been driven to need to feel like he needed to kill a child. He never got that chance and that feeling never truly came again. His anger, after all, was not against the children but the Guardians themselves.

And then there was that other feeling, of something familiar about being called 'papa'. Something that made him actually feel good inside, though not something he'd willing reveal or admit freely.

"Skylar, honey. You're supposed to be asleep."

"I can't sleep… the light hurts my eyes."

Pitch snapped his fingers as a horse pranced toward him. "Help keep the light away."

It neighed as it followed the girl back to the bedroom, made of pure black sand. She lay on the bed, curling tightly as the black sand swept upward to blanket her as the horse neighed a little softly and spun around, spreading more black dust to cover the tiny bits of pockets of light to reveal the room in entire darkness.

Her sigh of relief was audible as she fell into a blissfully, mindless sleep.

Pitch looked in, feeling oddly relieved that she had finally fallen asleep. He had taken her days ago, away from the living nightmare into a sleeping nightmare, though she seemed to welcome, even invite, this form. It brought her a sense of relief of away from reality, away from actual suffering and pain that she could not control. In the nightmares, she ruled it all, controlled it all, and was able to bend it to her will.

Just like Pitch. He'd been made into who he was because of nightmares, broken just as she when everything was taken from him. Without being seen, without being heard, without being felt, his world was small and empty. As her world had been, hidden from the bigger world and kept in a room away from any help, of any good.

They were very much alike. Which was why he had been drawn to her. Being alone was his worst fear and with her, he wasn't. That did not lessen his rage, though. Still driven, still violent, he vowed to do what he could to break them all down.

Faustine was becoming very agitated. The two, now bound to this time, spent the morning bickering loudly. She stuffed her ears with carrots as Thump made a face.

"Eww… hey, we should get Daddy to eat those!" She grinned at Axel who smiled widely.

"That'd be awesome!"

"You guys are mean!" Hop protested. "Mama…"

The three children looked to the absentee mother, who was licking her arm thoughtfully, carefully cleaning her fur to a pristine look.

"She can't hear us."

"Sure she can.." Axel climbed around their mother, stalking softly. He settled behind her with a wicked look as he put himself inches away from her.

"Oh, she's going to get angry.." Despite this, both Hop and Thump looked on with eagerness.

"MAMA! I'M HUNGRY! FEED ME!"

Faustine screamed, ripping the carrots from her abused ears. "You want to eat?!" She took a carrot and began to fight Axel to shove it into his mouth. "EAT IT!"

"Faustine!"

She was dragged out from their nesting area, Bunny glaring at her and then at Axel. "What am I going to do with you!?"

There was a loud boom as Bunny gritted his teeth. "That's it! I'm done with all of this! I've got too much to do and too little time to play nanny and papa and mate all in the same time!"

"Are you breaking up with me?!" All he could see were Faustine's eyes, grown so big that with her ears fallen back in distress, was quite comical.

"I.. what? No!"

"Then why did you say that!?" She ended on a wail, bursting out sobbing as Axel glared at his father while Hop and Thump cuddled to their mother.

"It's okay, mama! Papa's just joking! You know how bad he is with jokes!"

Bunny rolled his eyes. "Kit."

"You… don't.. love.. Me… any…mooooorrrrrreeee!"

Bunny found himself tackled to the ground. "What's wrong? Who here's causing trouble!?" Trek was frantic. "Mom! Mom! What's wrong!? Who hurt you? Who's hurt? What's wrong, why are you crying?!"

"Dad doesn't love her anymore," Aegis stage-whispered

Bunny didn't like the way Trek's long ear flicked toward him before turning to gaze at him from the side profile.

"It's not what you…"

Bunny found himself flying in the air before plummeting to the ground, struck down by Trek's body as he was pinned under the smaller bunny. Which was surprising because at his young age, Trek shouldn't have that strength to fight against a bigger foe.

Bunny wiggled. "It's not what you think, you moron! Let me up!"

He started laugh hysterically as Trek started to tickle him furiously. "No! Stop! Oh, strewth….no, no! Stop! I can't breathe!"

Jack landed hard as he frowned at the younger bunny tickling the Easter Bunny. "Who are they?"

"I.. ahahaha… I.. Stop it, for the love of Pete, stop it!" Bunny managed to wiggle away from Trek, holding his side.

"Hey, Jackie boy, how's my favorite uncle!" Trek jumped and pinned Jack to the ground. "Huh. You usually manage to keep me off, what's your deal?"

"Uncle?" Jack rasped. "Get off me, your fur is stifling me!"

"Jack, before things start to go haywire, these are… uh…"

"They're our children from the future!" Faustine shouted a little too loudly.

Jack stared with a deadpan gaze to Bunny who smiled weakly. "Dude. Really?"

"Yea, see, my kind…"

"We can manipulate the space and time of the fabrics of existence," Aegis said with all the importance of a well-read scholar.

"You mean I can, you screw up," Bunny said a little rudely as Aegis's ears fell back and she started to sniffle.

"Ah, rabbit fink, you're making her cry? You know how hard it is to make her stop?" Trek was lividly upset.

"Rabbit fink?"

The two rabbits ignored Jack as Bunny glowered. "You got yourself into this mess and now I have to solve it. How is an entirely different story!"

Faustine sniffed. "Plus Bunny doesn't love me anymore."

"Seriously? Seriously?"

"You could always hook up with Jack," Trek said cheerfully. "He always seems like he has a crush on you."

"I swear to God that I don't, Kangaroo." Jack said hurriedly to the glaring bunny.

"My head hurts and it's not even noon!" Bunny was aghast. "What else could go wrong?"

There was a moment of nothing followed by a sudden erosion of light that was almost quickly restored to its normal light. "What just happened?"

Hitch slowly lifted a paw, rubbing his fingers. "Black dust?"

Elsewhere, Tooth Fairy was almost too busy with work when the light disappeared and was just as quickly restored. But Baby Tooth squeaked as she shook herself, black dust falling off her as Tooth Fairy caught the last drift, eyes widened. "Pitch."  
North was ordering his list of toys to be made, all ahead of schedule. That same shadow flew across the ceiling as North looked up, blinking out black dust. "Is it? No, it can't be!"

Sandy was carefully weaving his sand somewhere in Australia when he suddenly frowned. Already in night, there was almost no change but there was a familiar snip at him, as he rubbed his arm, fingers barely coated in black sand.

It seemed to happen all at once, everyone just appeared in the Warren as voices rose until ears were set to bleed.

"SHUT UP AND TALK ONE AT A TIME!" Trek used his partial coin for a amplifier spell, his voice cutting across each and everyone of them.

"Who is bunny? I thought you last," North whispered, looking a little frazzled.

"It's a long story," Bunny began.

"They're our children!"

"It's a little longer than that, Faustine!"

"See the black sand?" North asked next. Tooth Fairy was trying to calm down Baby Tooth.

"It was seeing the shadow above, instead of below," Tooth protested.

"Yes, it was really strange," North nodded.

Sandy was once again talking but as no one could hear him, he was almost ignored.

Aegis was watching the symbols as she suddenly elbowed Trek. "It's her, isn't?" She asked him softly.

"Yea. I remember this story well, they used to tell it to us all the time."

"I think for a reason," Aegis said very softly. "We were meant to be here."

"So what do we do?"

"How does the story end?" Aegis asked her brother softly.

Trek's eyes widened in realization. "Oh, yes, now I remember. But they have to make the first move."

"Didn't they already?"

"What are you guys talking about?" Axel was feeling suspiciously. "Do you know something we don't know?"

"That's right!" Hop jumped against Thump. "They're from the future, they would know if something bad is happening!"

"No, we wouldn't. We haven't been born yet," Trek said pointedly as Hop's ears drooped even more.

"Well, there goes that idea," The three young siblings turned away as the two heaved a sigh together. Til there was a soft prod as Aegis dropped her gaze to Sandy.

"Crap."

Sandy raised an eyebrow as the two looked at each other then spoke hurriedly, softly in Rabbit-speak. Sandy switched his head back and forth as the two argued before turning away, crossing their arms at the same time in frustration. Sandy shrugged and floated to the arguing guardians.

The thin, frail girl watched them from above, hanging upside down on the ceiling of the Warren, the right half of her head's black hair long and messy with the other side chopped painfully short around the ears, though at the moment, it all hung down at the same time. She was kneeling, shadows grasped at her heels and rolling around her in constant comfort. She had sent the message to them and they all had received it.

She felt a little relief in that. Skylar thought she would fail but she was fast enriched in the powers of darkness and shadows, having spent her entire life in them. She moved, disappearing into the shadow to lurk out at the back of the group.

She stilled when Jack took notice of her. "Hey, how did she get in?"

"Skylar!" Aegis burst out as Trek covered her mouth.

Skylar froze, startled to have been recognized. She panicked, whipping her arms up as her shadow lifted and formed into floating fabric. She coated herself, disappearing like a magician's trick as everyone stared at where she had been.

"Damn it," Trek muttered, eyeing Aegis who looked utterly embarrassed.

"How did you know her?" Tooth Fairy asked firmly.

"Umm… any privileged information from the future is bound to ruin the past.. Err, present," Trek offered.

"You trespass in the past, you ruin past," North said dryly.

"Yea, didn't think that one through. Aegis, you wanna take a stab?"

"Umm…" They looked eyes and then high-fived, disappearing from view.

"HEY! I told you not to do that!" Bunny screamed in frustration. "It's bad enough when Faustine won't listen, the kids won't listen, now these two won't listen and they're screwing up the time stream! Do you know how long it will take me to fix this?!"

"Let me count," Faustine said quickly. "Let's see… uh… what am I counting again?"

"Bunny, we need answers," Tooth told Bunny sternly. "If they are from the future, even if not living in this time, they must have been told something. They knew that girl."

"That girl felt like Pitch," Jack muttered. "Only… well, she seemed warm."

"That is because she is living child. How did Pitch come to her?"

"Maybe she went to Pitch," Jack looked to North who looked conflicted on that part.

"Why would she?" Bunny asked finally. "Why?"

"Maybe we can ask her next time we see her!" Faustine faltered under the stares of her friends. "What? It was just a question!"


End file.
